The ‘new Byron Bay’ favoured by Pauline Hanson and her most powerful aide

Ashby has sold out of Cooee Bay. But he soon bought a block in nearby countryside and began work on a home.

As first reported by The Guardian, his $56,000 shed application was made by Small Batch Brewing, a company run by Ashby, Hanson and party official Alex Jones. It was among several businesses Hanson publicly declared only after they were revealed by this masthead in January.

One Nation announced last week it had approved party funds for a shed on Ashby’s land to “minimise costs, including commercial rent”, while projecting up to $500,000 in annual revenue from the micro-distillery.

This year, One Nation briefly considered applying for a second electorate office for Hanson in Yeppoon (population 7000 at the last census). But the idea has since died.

Canavan, the Nationals leader, chided Hanson at the time for living near Brisbane and not moving up the coast, as he had. “She wants to be a fly-in fly-out member,” he said.

One Nation cited “security reasons” in June when declining to say where the party housed its new light plane, a gift from Australia’s richest woman. It had already applied to have the Cirrus SR-22 aircraft removed from flight tracking websites.

But a public database contains the answer. It shows journeys to Albury, Cessnock, Brisbane, Melbourne, Dubbo and Newcastle over the past four months, with the plane returning time and again to where it was first unveiled in April: Rockhampton.

Ashby, a keen aviator, disputes a media report that he is its “main pilot”.

“I’m still in the process of upgrading my pilot’s licence, so I have not flown the Cirrus with passengers – only a commercial instructor,” he said.

He is well aware of the rules. The air safety regulator previously investigated him for possible criminal offences when he used a recreational licence to fly the party’s old plane (which was registered in his name and has now disappeared).

A One Nation spokesperson said the Cirrus was in Rockhampton “where Mr Ashby will assume the role of chief pilot once he completes his final exam”.

In defending Rinehart’s generosity, including various flights on her personal jet, Hanson argues it saves taxpayer money.

But parliamentary travel records show Hanson charged the taxpayer to fly back to Brisbane after celebrating the plane’s grand reveal in Rockhampton.

Three days later, in early May, she made another trip to Rockhampton. Again, she claimed taxpayer funds for the flights.

The new plane shuttled back and forth to Rockhampton making similar journeys to the ones Hanson made commercially.

One Nation declined to say who was in the Cirrus plane on these journeys and failed to explain what Hanson was doing in Rockhampton on the second trip. A spokesperson said that on the first trip Hanson “visited Yeppoon to inspect the new Cooee Bay Pool and met with locals ahead of the pool’s official opening”.

Hanson’s website records six infrastructure achievements relating to specific places. Of these, three are in the Rockhampton/Yeppoon area.

They include $23 million for a 16,000-seat Rockhampton sports venue, another Commonwealth grant with echoing announcements from the LNP and One Nation.

Hanson personally presented an oversized novelty cheque to the Rocky Sports Club, which adjoined the stadium site, in 2020 at a ceremony attended by a Liberal National candidate.

Robert Schwarten, a former state Labor minister and once influential powerbroker, described the scene as bizarre.

“I’ve never seen a political enemy turn up with a government cheque,” said Schwarten, who was born and raised in Rockhampton and was once approached by Ashby with a preference deal proposal. “To me, [One Nation] have been fostered by the very people they’re trying to crucify.”

Asked if One Nation spent its political capital in Central Queensland, Ashby’s home base, at the expense of other places, Hanson said she felt “very comfortable” with the party’s advocacy.

“Every project supported by One Nation has provided a solid business case, supported by the council, the community and stakeholder,” she said.

It’s normally governments, not minor parties, answering questions about public spending. This month, the federal Labor government’s $560 million community grants program was labelled pork-barrelling by the Centre for Public Integrity, while Hanson this week blasted a separate multicultural grants program as “truly staggering”.

In 2020, one person holding Hanson’s novelty cheque was Gavin Shuker, who owns the land beneath the Rocky Sports Club. He said when he pitched the stadium idea to Hanson she told him, “if I don’t think it’s a good idea, I won’t support it”, but came back with full support two days later.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone more honest than Pauline,” said Shuker, our first interviewee in town, who described himself as a friend of Ashby’s but politically unaligned.

Funding for the project was cancelled after the federal Labor government came to power.

Hanson and Ashby would tell The Sunday Mail in 2024 they were part-owners of Shuker’s Heritage Hotel in Rockhampton, alongside a syndicate of other investors. Today, all three say that Hanson and Ashby’s investments never eventuated.

Shuker, who runs several venues in town, declined to comment on criminal charges he is facing regarding unlicensed liquor trading, as they are still before the courts.

Brittany Lauga knew One Nation could get personal. In 2019, the party had attacked the sitting Labor MP with a billboard saying “Dear Brittany, you can’t be trusted”.

But her research on One Nation told her that “calling them names is not something that works well with their voters”. Instead, she said, politicians had to listen to their voters.

Lauga came up against Ashby in the seat of Keppel at the last state election.

“I’m not some Brisbane lackey who takes orders from down south,” he declared, campaigning on youth crime and housing affordability. He pushed for a youth detention centre on North Keppel Island, a new school, and better access to nursing homes.

He lost, coming third. But the Labor stronghold fell to the Liberal Nationals, as the federal seat had a decade earlier.

Lauga, who lost after three terms, said Central Queensland would be a natural place for One Nation to gain momentum, “because we already feel that sense of being left out”.

Canavan told The Conversation this month he would run for the lower house if needed and “won’t die wondering”. The widely held view in the Liberal National Party is Landry, the federal member for Capricornia, will not contest the next federal election, according to a number of party insiders speaking on condition of anonymity.

Colleagues have privately raised concerns about the toll of adversarial and hostile politics in a region that could become One Nation heartland.

Landry said she would reveal her intentions at a later date. Given the personal popularity of the MP, who has held the seat for five successive elections, long-time Nationals insiders say her loss would leave Capricornia prime for a One Nation invasion.

The One Nation spokesperson said Ashby had not considered a tilt himself.

But as the man with national campaign responsibility, he will be surveying the terrain with a bird’s-eye view, possibly from the cockpit of the Cirrus.

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